No Zone Archives: Drift
by Leodragon678
Summary: The Zone Cops are responsible for the fate of the Multiverse as we know it, hunting down interdimentional criminals and investigating anomalies is just part of the job...
1. Records

**Alright everyone! So, with the results of the poll in, it would seem you guys want me to write this story first, the concept of the Zone Cops always intrigued me and I figured I'd do my own adaptation on it. This story is going to include multiple OC variants of characters since the original appearances of the Zone Cops only had a few characters, nowhere near enough to do a full cast. So, I'm doing my own versions of characters we never got to see or hear about originally! I hope you all enjoy it! Let's begin!**

**No Zone Archives: Drift**

_**Records**_

Zonic never liked paperwork, he'd much rather be out in the field, chasing after some interdimensional criminal somewhere. He figured it was a necessary evil, somebody had to do all the paperwork to keep the machine running. Come to think of it, maybe he could get Zally to do it for him, she always seemed to enjoy this kind of stuff. Sitting back in his chair and pulling out his communicator, he tried to contact her, only to be met with no answer. He tried again to the same result. He groaned and set the communicator back on his belt. As he did, one of the monitors in front of him had an orange light activate. He quickly pulled up the incoming feed from the dimension. An orange light meant that there was an ongoing dimensional breach somewhere in the zone.

The zone's data didn't look too out of place, there was evidence of a breach somewhere within the readings. He put his helmet on and rushed out toward the main teleport pad. As soon as he arrived, he was confronted by Zantoine, whom oversaw reasons and times for each entrance and exit, along with controlling the very pad itself. Zonic had tried to run it once, only to succeed in almost teleporting everyone in the nearby vicinity into a random dimension with no hope of returning. Needless to say, he was banned from ever attempting to operate it again.

"What are you doing here?" Zantoine asked, his familiar accent being carried across the room.

Unlike most Zone Cops, Zantoine didn't really wear much of the standard combat uniform, his olive green and red casual outfit fit much better and he claimed it didn't make his feet ache, which was something the hedgehog could get behind. The lucky Mobians down in the more information-based jobs didn't have to wear the large clunky boots that officers had to. They got to be comfortable.

"Just headed out, there's a dimensional breach in Z-529."

"Do you have confirmation of your orders?"

The hedgehog froze, "Since when do I need that?"

"As of last cycle, remember?"

"No…"

"I assume you fell asleep during the presentation, again? No agents allowed to leave without confirmation of the order from a higher up, now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work, I suggest you do the same."

Zonic grumbled insults under his breath as he sulked back to his camera room. He supposed he could get Ziles to authorize his leave, though that would be a challenge, considering the fox only outranked him by technically.

He settled in for a largely boring day of absolutely nothing, what he would give for some actual action. Just as he had gotten comfortable, he was alerted by another report from a monitor, Sector S-827 just had a dimensional anomaly appear. He sent the report over to the scientific teams, they always liked to know about these things.

Dimensional anomalies weren't uncommon, but their exact cause was still unknown, they were just something that happened occasionally. The scientific side didn't really interest him, he just wanted to enforce the law, figuring out the secrets of the Multiverse, while it did have a nice ring to it, wasn't quite for him.

He continued going over his reports, constantly checking the time until his shift ended, it seemed to drag on for forever. Eventually, he received a call on his communicator, it was Zally. He quickly answered.

"What's up?"

"I was about to ask you the same question," The voice on the other end replied. "I couldn't answer, was in the middle of a trial. There's just not enough to convict this guy, he claims he was dimension hopping by accident. One doesn't just go though several dimensional vortexes on 'accident'"

"That sucks."

"I just know Nega's behind this somehow, but without the evidence, I think I'll have to let him walk."

Zonic, didn't like hearing that, everybody he captured he knew was guilty. But they were entitled to a defense and Zhadow, the resident defense attorney, was notorious for his ability to turn cases around.

"Have you checked with Ziles, maybe he's got something." Zonic commented.

"I was actually going to ask you to do that for me."

"What, scared of a little blood!?"

"You know he gives me the chills."

Zonic figured that was going to be her answer, Ziles tended to do that.

"Alright, I'll ask him next time I see him."

"Thanks, tell him it's now or never."

"Can do."

Zally hung up on her end, Zonic would have asked her about taking his shift for him, but she appeared to be busy. He figured he'd try a but later, he had just agreed to do a favor for her after all.

He continued scanning the monitors, nothing else of note, small breach here, flicker there, total collapse of an entire dimension. These things happened all the time. As if on command, his communicator went off and he recognized it as Zicole.

"Yes?" He answered.

"Zonic, the chief would like to speak with you."

The hedgehog instinctively swallowed hard. If the chief wanted him, it generally wasn't for a good reason.

"Alright, I'll be there in a second." The hedgehog got out if his seat, he figured that whatever trouble he was almost certainly in was better than staring at screens for hours on end.

**-X-**

"You called for me Chief?" Zonic asked, setting his helmet down on a nearby table as he entered. Chief Zamy, a pink hedgehog, was seated in the desk in front of him, she wore a black uniform laced with gold trim, which glinted in the red-orange sunlight as she turned to face him.

"Yes, I've got a new assignment for you, it seems Nega has recruited some new lackeys, they were terminated last mission, but their bodies are still intact. I want you to take Ziles with you and see what you can find.

"You don't ever put me with Ziles, what's the special occasion?"

"Well, normally he doesn't get assigned to fieldwork, and you're the only one who gets along with him, plus I figured we could start giving it a shot again. Zantoine should already be informed as to the site where we're sending you."

Zonic smiled at the comment, "You got it chief, we'll take a look."

She nodded at him and he stepped out and started toward Ziles' lab, he expected the fox to be excited about his new assignment.

**-X-**

_Forensics Lab and Ziles' Quarters_

He instinctively read the sign outside as he approached, scanning his mind just in case if there was any reason the fox might have revoked his credentials, he hadn't remembered bringing any food in within the past few days so he should be fine. He placed his palm on the scanner and the door opened in response. The smell of disinfectant reached his nose and the stark lack of other agents or officers was stunning as usual.

Ziles possessed almost an entire district to himself, even so, he specifically requested he have, "No assistants, no sidekicks, no 'little helpers'." As he had put it. Some of the other officers had come to calling him 'The Necromancer' because of his reclusive nature and borderline fascination with corpses. Sonic didn't mind, he had known the kitsune for years.

Currently he seemed to be busied at one of the many desks scattered throughout the room, his white lab coat billowing out behind him. He could hear light growling underneath the fox's breath, along with the distinctive irritated taps of his leg braces on the floor, he was frustrated about something. His singular tail stood on end behind him, confirming Zonic's suspicions. Zonic approached behind him and lightly tapped on his shoulder, causing Ziles to jump in surprise.

"Zonic!" He exclaimed, "Don't scare me like that, I've got important work to do."

"Thought you'd be happy to see me!" the hedgehog replied, pulling the fox away from his work and onto his feet. "The Chief's got some field work for us."

"Wait, they actually gave me a field assignment, one with you no less?"

"I know! It seems insane!"

"Well let's get going! The more time we have the better, what are we up to?"

"Some of Nega's new associates kicked the bucket, we're in charge of checking it out."

"Field mission with you, and fresh corpses? Is it my birthday early?"

"You only wish! I would have gotten something for my favorite fox."

The kitsune in question grinned at the statement, "Well, let's get going! They're not going to collect themselves!" Ziles ran into the back of his personal. laboratory. He emerged a few minutes later wearing his uniform.

Rather than the olive green and crimson of the standard uniform, Ziles' was a pristine white, it was much less bulky then the standard uniform, but was more form fitting to the scientist, he was never deployed to front line missions, so the suit lacked armor, it possessed basic shields to protect him from the elements, along with the occasional stray projectile in an emergency. The helmet had space to accommodate his ears and had a light blue visor across the front. As per the fox's request, the suit lacked the heavy boots that were generally standard issue, and instead were paw shaped pads placed across the bottoms, which he found much more comfortable. A set of leg braces were built into the uniform, allowing him to not have to worry about them while in dangerous situations.

Ziles' legs were an interesting story, while it was normal for his other selves throughout the multiverse to have genetic mutations, most of the time they were minor, such as different eye colors. Not anything that would severely effect their lives. Ziles was one of the exceptions to the rule, he had diagnosed with a form of diplegic cerebral palsy, it prevented muscle development in his legs, as such, they were unable to support his weight. He required leg braces to even walk, and so they were built into his uniform.

He still remembered the look on the fox's face when Zonic had first taught him to walk upright. He could never get that grin out of his thoughts.

The fox walked up to him, "So, where we headed?"

"Don't know, Zantoine's already been prepared, so I guess we'll see."

"It's a surprise? This really is strange."

"Well, the chief said she was trying out something new. Also, anything new for Zally? She says it's now or never."

"I've hit a road block, I've been going over the data for days on end, there's just nothing there."

"Well, just keep trying. But don't lock yourself in that lab for too long. Maybe this new mission will let you look at it differently."

The fox shrugged, "Can't argue that that."

Zonic noticed that any other Zone Cops they walked past quickly moved out of their way, or made it look like they were busy, Ziles had that effect on others because of the rumors spread about him. If the hedgehog didn't know better, he would have assumed that Ziles liked the aura of intimidation around him.

Zonic had heard his own fair share of rumors about the fox, some guessed he was a vampire, others, that he had secretly went mad years ago and was kept in the forensic lab like a prisoner. He knew they were all false, Ziles just enjoyed his job as he had put it. "Bodies are so fascinating! Figuring out what made them tick and why everything broke down, all the little clues you can figure out about someone from just what they ate yesterday! It's like a puzzle!"

Suddenly, he could see where all the other agents were coming from…

**-X-**

The duo stepped out of the portal and arrived on site, the area was surrounded by jagged cliff sides that seemed to extend to the very heavens themselves. There were also steep drop offs on each side of them, Zonic readjusted his Warp Ring placed around his wrist, they were generally only one time use and allowed Zone Cops the ability to warp back to base whenever required.

He reached down to his belt and activated the dimensional stabilizer, the No Zone had its unique quarks, one of them being that its denizens tended to remain fixed to its orientation, even when in other dimensions, causing them to seemingly float parallel to the ground. The stabilizers allowed them to remain upright and rooted within the physics and workings of their current dimension. It was had become ingrained in the protocol for Zone Cops that he didn't know what he would do without it.

Lying in center of the small canyon they were in, was a singular body, a second lay a short distance from the first. Ziles stepped over to them and began to physically overlook the corpse, turning it over and inspecting every inch of it. Zonic always wondered what the fox was thinking during these investigations. What exactly he was looking for.

"Well, let's get the obvious out of the way." Ziles began. "He was shot, judging by the scorch marks across his fur, I would guess from behind, the injury is still rather fresh. He pulled his hand out of the small burnt hole, revealing dark red finger tips. "There's still plenty of blood here."

Zonic recoiled slightly at the appearance of the blood, "You creep me out sometimes, you know that?"

"Yep! It's part of the job!"

Zonic laughed at the fox's explanation and let him continue.

"He would have been hit right about…" His voice trailed off for a second as he took a step back, he walked over to a nearby segment of rock and planted his feet. "Here."

The fox walked back over to the corpse. He removed a small syringe from his belt and inserted it into the wrist of the unfortunate victim, drawing enough blood to fill it. He replaced the syringe back onto his belt. He continued to examine the victim, he snapped his fingers on his right hand and instantly his palm was aglow with light, he shone it into the blaster wound and looked around. "Well, seems like whoever shot this guy has had his target practice, straight through the lungs."

Ziles stepped back, "Well, I'm going to need better equipment for this one. Not a whole lot I can do here."

He walked over to the other corpse, Zonic followed behind him and the fox knelt by the body.

"Shot, very similar appearance to the other," Ziles removed his right hand, from the injury on the body, his palm was completely coated in blood. "Its nowhere near as clean as the other one though, normally these things would cauterize the wound as they went though, burning it to prevent bleeding. This one's a bit odd because of the lack of it here."

"What do you think caused that? Didn't you just say he was-"

The fox held up a bloody finger to the hedgehog, silencing him for a moment, he removed a small knife from his belt. "You might want to look away, this isn't going to be pretty."

The fox made several linear cuts across the body's chest, eventually creating a small square of flesh he could lift away from the skin, he snapped his fingers again, causing the lights on his palm to activate, he noticed several bruises on some of the muscles inside the body. This instantly confirmed the fox's theory.

"I'm going to have to change the cause of death here, he actually died from trauma."

"What makes you say that?"

"See those bruises on his muscles, I'll bet he was shot, didn't instantly die but instead put up a fight with some of the officers. Which resulted in several hits to the gut. This caused internal bleeding, which is evidenced by the amount of fresh blood here, which is what he actually died from."

Zonic just stood there in shock, "How do you figure this stuff out?"

"Look for what's off, if you work with bodies enough you start to see patterns in some things. Now, using the cause of death, I can figure out how the dimensional residue would have deteriorated from his last dimensional hops to see what he was up to."

"Sounds awesome, you might want to wash up before hand though…"

He looked down at himself and noticed the bloody gloves along with the speckles of blood across his chest from slicing with the knife. He took on a slightly embarrassed look, "Guess I got a bit carried away there…"

"Hey, you got us started! Let's figure out where these two are from!" Zonic activated his warp ring and the two exited back into the headquarters. Causing Zantoine to run over to the fox and check if he was hurt from all the blood, much to Ziles' annoyance. He called in a retrieval crew for the corpses and ordered for them to be dropped off outside of his laboratory. He figured he'd find out exactly what these two were up to as soon as they returned. Before then however, he was going to take a bath.

**Alright! 3k words has got to be a solid start to this story! I hope you guys all enjoyed it! Please follow to be notified of the next chapter, and review to tell me what your thoughts are! Until next time!**


	2. The Cripple

**Hey guys! It's time for another chapter here, but first, I have a review!**

**Bea: I enjoyed writing it as well, the Zone Cops were always something I wanted to see more of!**

**Alright, let's get started!**

**No Zone Archives: Drift**

_**The Cripple**_

Ziles pulled himself up and over the edge of his bath, sitting down and replacing his leg braces. After they were firmly in place, he stood up and shook himself off, spraying water all over the tiled walls of the washroom. He wrapped a towel around him and traveled back to his quarters, he smirked at the stares he was given as he walked past.

He liked having a reputation around the Zone Cops, made it so others didn't mess with him when he wanted something. He scanned his palm on the door of his lab, it denied him access.

He hated when this happened. He quickly dried his hand on the towel and tried again, nothing. He groaned and started upstairs, he opened the door to the machinery department, Zotor was occupied at one of his work desks, he turned and couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the dripping wet fox before him.

"You look terrible! How can I help Ziles?"

"I'm locked out of my quarters, scanner's acting up again…"

"I could have sworn I fixed it just after Zamy's meeting on the new policy, I'll send somebody down, in the mean time, I'll just disable the lock, I doubt anybody will try and break into your place anyways."

That was a statement he could agree with, he rarely got visitors unless you counted Zonic that is. He returned to his quarters and the door opened for him, he put a lab coat on after discarding his towel, prepared his instruments, and got to work.

**-X-**

Zally meanwhile, was currently pacing up and down her office. "There has to be something!" She thought. She looked over her evidence list again, a set of dimensional travel records, a seemingly stolen pod shaped vehicle, it was listed as being from a industrial world, not the defendant's home dimension. This wasn't necessarily a negative thing, he could have gotten it legally, interdimensional travel was authorized. The thing was, it had a different set of dimensional travel records than he did, the defendant brushed it off as simply the traces on him wearing off faster than the one on the vehicle, which was true. Then there was his accomplice, there wasn't much to go off of, he ran off midway through the chase and was caught by officers, Ziles was processing his corpse now.

She didn't even want to think about what he was probably doing…

She refocused back on her work, after a while, she received a call from Zonic, he wanted to see her by Ziles' quarters, while she didn't want to, he may have found something to assist her case. She traveled down to Ziles' quarters and found the door ajar, Zonic and Ziles were waiting for her.

"You called?"

"You need to see this!" Ziles responded. Zonic just shrugged, he didn't know what this was about either. She walked around to Ziles' side of the lab, deliberately avoiding the white sheets as she did.

He held out a tablet, "Do you know what this is?"

She looked at it, it had the appearance of a set of dimensional travel records.

"Travel records?" She guessed, the fox nodded in response.

"Exactly, now, do you notice anything odd about them?"

Looking, they appeared to have the same three dimensions they had traveled to, not much noticeable. Upon closer inspection however, the arrival times were heavily spaced apart between the two of them. One had arrived almost weeks before the other.

"A bit-"

"Exactly!" Ziles interrupted, he nervously smiled. "Sorry, got carried away there…"

"You're good, so what's important about that?"

"Well, I figure, that one of them wasn't trying to escape at all! He was waiting there."

"For what?"

"I think, that the second one, the one that arrived later, was going to pass something off to him."

"Ok, so that links those two, and our defendant together. Because now we know what happened to his accomplice." Zally replied.

"Even better, it lets us link him to something bigger!"

Zally eyed him skeptically. The fox continued with his explanation. "The retrieval teams turned this in."

He handed her a small circular orb, it fit snugly in her palm, she recognized it as a data cache, variations of it were used across the multiverse to carry information between dimensions. Activating it, it contained information about multiple different dimensions. She recognized many of them as ones Nega had been investigating recently.

"This is perfect!" She exclaimed, "I'd like to see him turn this around! I knew they were related!"

"Glad I could help!"

She thanked the fox before exiting the room, she needed to prepare. Zonic walked over from his spot by the edge of the room. "I still don't know how you do it..."

"I just enjoy my work, everything else just kind of happens."

"You don't need to be humble! You're the smartest guy I know!"

"Well, it's thanks to you!"

"It was nothing, you were too smart to be stuck like that your whole life."

The kitsune blushed, his cheeks turning a bright pink. Zonic couldn't help but smile at it, especially as the memory of how they had first met resurfaced.

**-X-**

Zonic always hated having to go to the civilian quarters, the No Zone dedicated so many resources to the Zone Cop program and policing the multiverse that many simply ignored the existence of the civilians. They were generally given minimal help and had to fend for themselves most of the time. A group of children were currently playing tag within the large recreational area given to them, he smiled and continued on his way, as he went to walk past however, he saw something. A kid sat a short distance from the rest of the group, he was in a wheelchair, Zonic noticed the his sad expression and walked over to him. The orange fox didn't acknowledge his approach, content to stay with his blanket.

"Hey bud," Zonic spoke. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," He replied.

"Well clearly it's not nothing, is it something with your legs?"

The kit didn't respond, Zonic continued pressing him.

"Look, you'll be fine in a bit, don't worry about it."

Tears welled up in the kit's eyes at the sentence, he burst out into sobs, causing Zonic to jump back in alarm.

"You don't understand! They never understand!" The fox yelled. An older white vixen, whom Zonic assumed to be the kit's mother, pulled him away.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

A brown fox, the kit's dad, stepped over to him. "It's alright. He always gets emotional with these things."

"What's wrong with him?"

"Miles was, born with a form of diplegic cerebral palsy. He hasn't been able to walk since he was born."

Zonic's heart dropped at the realization, "Why can't he?"

"His leg muscles can't support his weight, he just collapses."

"I guess me telling him it'll get better doesn't help huh?"

"We've tried, but with how it's going, he'll be in a wheelchair for life."

Zonic felt bad for the guy, not being able to walk had to be terrible. "Do you know if I can see him? I'd like to apologize."

"Let's go see, hopefully he's calmed down a bit." They followed the direction the kit had been taken and eventually found him and his mother, who was still trying to get him to calm down. The crippled fox was sobbing into his mother's shoulder, she had picked him up from his chair and had placed him on her lap.

"It's alright," She spoke. "You're alright."

The kit's legs didn't have any visible damage. Zonic assumed it to be an injury during development that caused it. Upon noticing Zonic, Miles pulled himself upward and toward his mother.

"What do you want…" He asked.

"Miles, I'm sorry for what I said, you've probably been through a lot haven't you."

The kit gently nodded, before turning to his mother. "Mom, can you put me back?"

"Sure," She replied, setting him into his wheelchair, and tucking a blanket over his legs.

"What's your name?" Miles asked.

"Zonic."

"You're a Zone Cop?"

"Yeah."

Miles' singular tail started wagging at the statement. "That's so cool! I wanted to join you guys when I got older, I don't think I could now though…"

Zonic felt sympathy for the fox, he wanted to make it up to him in some way. He seemed nice enough. "Sorry if this is too personal," He began. "But can you not walk at all?"

"Not really, maybe for like a second if I really tried…"

"Could you walk when you were younger?"

"A little, mostly because I was lighter, but now, I'm just a bit too heavy…"

"Sorry bud, I wish there was something I could do."

"You're alright, thanks for talking to me."

"No problem bud, sorry for what I said earlier."

"Apology accepted."

Zonic waved him goodbye and continued on his way. Little did he know, he would find himself visiting the kitsune more often as time passed. They became close friends, but Zonic still wanted to help him out, let him actually enjoy his life.

Eventually, one day, he managed to pull it off.

"Where are we going?" The kit asked, shifting in his wheelchair as he did. Zonic had taken him out of the civilian quarters, to where, he still didn't know.

"You'll see." Zonic replied. The kit continued to look around in amazement, maybe he saw himself as another one of the Zone Cops now. Either way, Zonic found it cute.

Zonic tuned and brought the two of them into a nearby door, a mechanical laboratory of sorts. Dr. Zave stepped over to them.

"You must be Miles!" The engineer began. Extending her hand out to the kit, who shook it.

"That's me!"

Zave stepped into the back for a bit, Miles turned to Zonic. "She seems nice."

"She's, something, that's for sure."

She returned with several silver and blue colored components, he knelt down to the kit's legs. She looked them over for a second, "Alright bud, now, let me know if this hurts."

Miles pulled his legs away in alarm, "What do you mean if this hurts!?"

"Calm down," Zonic replied. "She's just wanting you to let her know when it gets too tight."

The fox calmed down and Zave continued, pressing several things against the kit's fur, he yelped out at one point as they were tightened heavily around his ankles. Zave slightly loosened them in response. After a few minutes, Zave stood back up.

"That should be everything, Zonic, you said you wanted to do the honors?"

The hedgehog stepped around and grabbed the kit by the wrist, pulling him out of his chair. "Zonic, what are you-" The kitsune stopped, Zonic released his grip as the inevitable conclusion came to the fox's mind. He was standing.

Tear droplets of pure joy cascaded down his face as he yanked Zonic into a hug. "T- Thank, Thank you!"

"I figured there was something I could do to help."

The kit took a few slow steps backward before throwing his hands to the sky in pure joy. He looked down at his legs and found that Zave had attached white and light blue leg braces to him, giving him the support he needed to finally walk under his own power.

He took a few slow shaky steps before quickly speeding up and starting to run around the room. He had the biggest grin across his face as his distinctive footfalls echoed around the room. The metal braces echoing along with his shoes as he finally found himself freely able to move.

"Somebody's happy!" Zonic commented, Miles stopped and walked over to him.

"I can't thank you enough!" The fox responded. "How'd you do it?"

"I got Zave to help me out, she did most of the building. I just took some measurements of your legs when you weren't paying attention. It wasn't too hard really."

"Still, thank you!" The kit buried his head into the hedgehog's chest. Pulling him into an embrace so hard that Zonic had some trouble breathing.

The kit stepped back, "I've got to tell my parents!" He bolted out of the room in a full sprint, Zonic followed closely behind him, the fox continued back the way he had come and burst into his house, startling both of his parents.

"What's the big pro-"

Both of his parents paused as they realized the Miles had just ran through the door without his wheelchair. The all pulled each other into a hug, crying tears of joy. Zonic watched the display and couldn't help but feel happy. Miles' parents pulled him over.

"I don't know how you did it," Rosemary began. "But you don't know how much this means to him."

"I think I do, and, can you let him know that if he ever wants to join the Zone Cops, tell him I'll put a good word in for him."

The vixen nodded and returned to her son, who was busy showing off his leg braces to his father. Zonic took one last look and headed back toward his quarters, he was just happy to have helped out the kid as best as he could.

**Alright that's it everyone! Let me know what you thought! Until next time!**


	3. Out of Alignment

**Hey guys! Life's been busy lately, so I apologize for making you guys wait for this update! Hopefully I should be back on regular updates soon!**

**(FFN Reviews)**

**Remnants of Fantasy: I wanted to try something new! Having him as a mechanic was the obvious choice so I naturally picked something else! XD**

**Stardust Pie (Guest): Thanks for the call out! Don't know how that got past editing. It has been fixed now!**

**(Ao3 Comments)**

**ATaTForTatzelwurm: I figured it was essential to the progress of the story and to really get an idea on how his thought process sees things! It's rather fun to write the somewhat macabre details on things!**

**Alright, let's get going!**

**No Zone Archives: Drift**

_**Out of Alignment**_

"And that your honor, is why this man is without a shadow of a doubt, guilty of not only conspiracy, but perjury."

Zally let out a sigh of relief, she had practiced her closing several times over now, she felt confident in her ability to win this case, especially with the new information and evidence that had arisen. She smiled to herself.

"_I can't wait to see the look on his face!"_

As the primary prosecuting attorney on the case, she was against not only the accused defense, but also Zhadow, the defense attorney for the case. He had the uncanny ability to turn cases around, she was going to need everything she could find.

The information that Ziles located was just what she had needed to finally settle this case for good. She looked back down at her notes, practicing again couldn't hurt. While she knew that chances were it wouldn't go exactly to her plan, memorizing the evidence and how to use it, however, was essential.

She began again, somewhat eager for the trial to finally continue. Several hours later, as she approached the courtroom, she was met with a voice.

"I see you've brought something new." The voice spoke, she mentally sighted and turned around to face him. The black hedgehog was already prepared, seeming rather confident in his ensuing victory.

"Don't be too confident Zhadow, you're going down."

"We'll see about that..."

The ebony hedgehog walked back off to prepare his arguments, Zally did the same until they were both called back and sworn in to continue the trial.

The defendant entered, a shorter white dog, shackles sat around his ankles and wrists.

"Before we begin, I feel it is necessary to go over the information already presented."

Both attorneys nodded at the statement, it couldn't hurt.

**-X-**

After completion of his assignment, Zonic was forced to return to his small corner in the surveillance room. He was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to perform an arrest, or even see any live criminals. As he said back in his chair for yet another boring day, one of his monitors alerted of a dimensional instability, just as he prepared to send a report to the scientific teams, another one activated, and another. The alerts piled up and for once, Zonic was completely overwhelmed, it had to be a problem with the system, right?

He burst out of the office and dashed down to the chief's office, he threw the door open, instantly surprising her.

"We've got a problem," He began. "There's instabilities in every dimension!"

Zamy eyed him for a second, "That's not possible…"

Zonic, rather than trying to explain himself, simply beckoned her to follow him, which she did, having to speed up to keep pace with the hedgehog. Several other officers saluted her as she walked past, until eventually, they arrived at the surveillance room. Sure enough, every reading and monitor they had was freaking out, it almost looked like the entire multiverse had collapsed into anarchy at once, however, none of the dimension's denizens were even aware of their current plight, meaning it wasn't too severe, yet…

"That's not good…" She muttered under her breath, she still silently hoped it was still a bug in their system, though that was seeming less and less likely with each passing moment.

"What's the protocol for this chief?" Zonic asked.

"We don't have any, nothing like this has ever happened before… I'll send up mechanical to look at the scanner itself, but we're just going to have to play this one by ear…"

Zonic was, slightly stunned at this statement. Zamy always had three plans for everything, knowing now that even she was completely stumped. It didn't broad well for their chances at solving this quickly.

"For now," Zamy continued. "I want you to keep a close watch on everything, there's a chance this will just take care of its self…"

While Zonic didn't agree with the statement, it couldn't hurt to try.

He remained in the surveillance room, checking back with the monitors every so often. Zotor had come in and investigated the scanners and they appeared to be functioning correctly, this confirmed Zonic worst fears. They had an interdimensional crisis on their hands. Several hours later, Zamy put out an announcement for all available personnel to report to the briefing room. Zonic stood from his chair, and started toward it, he wondered how everybody else would handle the news.

He arrived some time later, several other agents were present. As he stepped through the crowd, he managed to find several faces he recognized along with overhearing multiple debates on why exactly they had been summoned. As he pushed through, he found Ziles and Zally somewhere near the center, Ziles being given plenty of space from the other nearby agents. As he got closer, Zally noticed his presence out of the corner of her vision.

"There you are! We've been looking for you."

"How'd the trial go?"

"Good, you should have seen the look on Zhadow face, I wish I could have gotten it on camera!"

Zally was obviously riding the high off her victory, she was super energetic, completely contrasting the somewhat timid fox standing behind her.

"Do you have any idea why we're here?" Ziles asked, "Just standing around like this makes me nervous."

"I don't have any clue," Zonic lied. He didn't want to be the one to break it to them, Zamy would do a thousand times better than he ever could.

They talked for a bit longer before they were all called to attention, everybody sat with eager thoughts as their chief stepped up.

"Attention everybody, I have gathered you here for a quick announcement. The scanners appear to be detecting dimensional anomalies in nearly every dimension."

At this sentence, chaos burst out from inside the room, with everybody talking over one another to the point it was nearly impossible to undertake what they were saying. Still, as he listened closely, he could make out some parts of it.

"Are you serious!?"

"I hope this is some kind of joke!"

"Then what are we doing standing here!?"

"You've got to be kidding!"

The final voice he heard came from Ziles, whom was clearly not amused by the announcement. In fact, he looked completely stunned. Zally, on the other hand, was taking it rather calmly. He assumed she was waiting for the entire announcement to finish.

After most of the uproar had calmed down, Zamy continued. "We're going to do everything in our power to figure out the cause of this, until that is complete, all reconnaissance teams are going to have more assignments that usual."

Zonic grinned at the statement, it meant he would be seeing more action. Several other murmurs were heard but they quickly silenced themselves.

"We're not sure of the cause of the distortion either," She continued. "As such, our scientific and research teams are going to have extra assignments until we can find the cause of this event. Should it be caused by a living being, they will face swift justice at our hands! I'm going to need the best out of each one of you! For the multiverse!"

Rather than murmurs, there came a great cheer from the assembled officers. Everyone seemed somewhat inspired by the ending of her speech and were ready to do whatever it took to protect the multiverse.

He had been told to keep a very close eye on anything he saw during surveillance, anything could be a clue at this point as to what the cause of the major shift was. Several hours later, Zotor arrived again to preform another check on the systems, just in case. After the check, he showed the reports to Zonic.

"Well, I think that confirms it, it's not a fluke, in fact, they're getting worse."

Zonic snatched the paper from him, sure enough, though it was miniscule, it was worse. This was a problem, if it went unchecked, how far would it go? Would it reach them, maybe it already had...

"Zotor, can you check our dimension? Is the drift affecting us?"

The walrus nodded, "That's probably a good idea, so much so that Zinituvus already did it." He replied, "We seem to be immune to it, for the time being. If it continues at this rate, there's the chance that it could spread here."

"Did you ask him what that would do?"

The mechanic sighed, "As it gets worse and worse, there's the chance that dimensions can pull themselves apart. Everything could collapse, nothing would exist."

Zonic swallowed hard, that wasn't very reassuring.

"Do we have any equipment to try and stop this?"

"Not on this scale, if it were just one or two, we'd be fine, but it's thousands... There's not much we can do until we find It's source."

Zonic's communicator activated, looking down, he found he had been given an assignment and was to report to Zantoine as soon as possible.

He thanked Rotor before standing out of his seat and heading toward the teleporter.

**-X-**

Zamy was freaking out, she had kept her composure in front of the officers, but was deeply concerned, Zinituvus had just warned her of what could happen should this be allowed to progress. It needed to be dealt with here and now. She had dispatched several agents to different dimensions, in hope they could find something of use. A short knock on her office door startled her out of her thoughts, she checked that she was presentable before opening the door. Revealing Agent Zlaze, a longtime friend of hers, they had both been Zone Cops around the same time, before Zamy had been promoted to chief that was.

"Zamy, several Zone Cops have been deployed, we're investigating now, they have orders to return if they find anything interesting. Several scientific officers have been deployed as well, mostly to locations that they might be able to gleam something with their expertise."

Zamy nodded, "As soon as you know the cause, you need to alert me. If this goes on for too long, it could cause irreparable damage to the multiverse as we know it.

"Understood."

"I also want you to accompany Ziles, he's not too familiar with mission, plus, I think he might want to see you again."

The cat nodded before exiting, leaving the chief to herself, she sighed and looked out the window that spanned the wall behind her, she vowed not to fail, if they failed, the multiverse was doomed.

They could not fail, that much was certain. She secretly hoped this was still just a temporary fluke, or something natural. But deep down she knew, somebody was causing this, and when she got her hands on them. She would make them regret ever crossing the Zone Cops.

**Alright guys, that's everything for now! We've gotten though introductions, now to get on with the real story! Let me know what you thought! Until next time!**


	4. Family Dynamics

**Hello everyone! I have a quick announcement before we start, with Parallel Lives completed there's a poll on my profile to decide the new story! Please, if you could take a second and check that out, it would be amazing!**

**I'm also so sorry for making you guys wait, like, a full month for another chapter, I assure you, I'm not dead! Lets get started!**

**No Zone Archives: Drift**

**Family Dynamics**

Zlaze stepped through the portal and found herself amid black stone plains, lava geysers sprayed up in the distance. She quickly found Ziles, who was busy investigating what appeared to be a corpse. He quickly jumped up and saluted to her.

"C- Commander Zlaze!? I wasn't expecting to see you here!"

The cat smiled, "Good to see you again too Ziles." Causing a blush to appear across the fox's face.

She had been the one to train Ziles when he first joined, before he decided that he was going to become a forensic scientist. As such, they knew one another rather well.

"What are you up to?" Zlaze asked.

"Well, that's the thing, I'm not certain." He gestured to the body in front of him, a white furred cat. "We've already had our first casualty. This dimension, T-615, was already really close to naturally falling out of alignment. Because of the problems that are now coming with these things, stuff is already starting to die… Believe it or not, but where your standing, this all used to be grassy fields.

Zlaze looked around, it was difficult to imagine, it just looked like a wasteland for forever. "That's… Terrifying…"

"Exactly my thoughts!" The fox exclaimed, "The scary thing is, if we can't figure out what's causing this, it'll happen to every dimension eventually…"

The statement hung in the air for a bit, letting it's full weight set in. Ziles returned back to the body he was inspecting.

"Have- Have you found anything strange?" Zlaze asked, still taken aback by the sheer scale of what they were dealing with.

"Well, it's- like nothing I've ever seen before… Everything is just… It's all just, nothing makes sense here, it's infuriating!"

For emphasis, he kicked a nearby rock, sending it sprawling down the hill. He walked back over to his spot, leaving small paw prints behind in the loose black dirt.

"Easy Ziles, easy!"

"Sorry, just got caught up in it. I'm just used to these things coming naturally you know?"

"Well, maybe you can tell me about what's so strange about it, I don't understand any of this stuff you know." Zlaze responded, a small smirk crossing her face as she did.

"Well, it seems like everything just, forgot how to work." The fox responded, hints of exasperation in his voice. "Like it all just shut off."

"Are you scared the same thing will happen to us?"

"That's the thing, it seems to only occur in natural denizens of the dimension, we were both born in the No Zone, so we're somewhat rooted to it. Otherwise, if we stayed here long enough, we'd end up like this." He replied, gesturing down to the body in front of him.

"So, how's it spreading then?"

"It's not, at least, not on a physical level. The other living things in this dimension seem to be fine, but its slowly going to get worse. It's all just falling apart, and I'm not sure a forensic scientist like me can do a whole lot about it."

"You're alright bud, maybe you'll be the one to finally figure it out!"

The fox blushed slightly at the compliment and continued his investigation. Zlaze, deciding she wasn't going to be much of help to him, decided to take a walk around, see if there was anything Ziles had missed.

After pacing around for a few minutes, she found the edge of the infestation, where the total breakdown of living organisms had stopped, for now. The thick green plant life was starting to disintegrate slowly, causing the black desert she was in to expand forward, inch by inch. As she neared the edge of the desert, she was put on alert by the sound of movement coming from the foliage. She lowed her hand down to her waist, resting it on the grip of her pistol. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

After a moment, a short white hedgehog emerged from the underbrush. He was much younger than she was, about six or seven if she had to guess. Zlaze's HUD on her helmet identified him as a alternate version of Silver, his Prime Zone counterpart. Not much info outside of that, however, knowing this, she could guess that the kid had a power of some sort.

Zlaze relaxed and waved the hedgehog, whom appeared slightly terrified at her stern demeanor earlier. She tried to salvage the meeting as best as she could, maybe he knew something she didn't.

"Hey bud, what's your name?"

"Silver…"

_"Figures,"_ Zlaze thought to herself. The only reason the Zone Cops even had a different name than any of their other incarnations was because the iconic 'Z' at the start of their name was added when the officially became a Zone Cop. It was done to remove confusion when dealing with alternate versions of their coworkers.

"What you doing all the way out here?" The feline asked, from what short briefing she had received, she new the nearest settlement was a sizable distance from here, what this hedgehog was up to was up for questioning.

The hedgehog seemed to tentatively approach Zlaze, emerging from the plant cover. "I was just looking around I've never seen anything like this place before…"

"Where are you from Silver?"

The hedgehog pointed off, "That way."

Zlaze gazed off into the distance, but couldn't see what Silver was referring to. But she did know there was a small town that direction. "How did you get that far on your own?"

In response, Silver's wrists started to glow a bright cyan and he teleported a short distance away before returning. Zlaze smiled.

The hedgehog was just about to speak to her again before he hid behind the officers legs as Ziles approached. She figured the small blood splatters on the foxes' uniform weren't doing a whole lot of good for the hedgehog's nerves.

"Zlaze, we've got… Who's that?" He asked, gesturing to the hedgehog currently cowering behind her.

She gently pushed him out from behind her, he still looked rather scared at the fox's appearance however, "This is Silver."

Ziles reached a hand out to him, "My names Zi-"

Before he could finish, Silver flinched backward. Ziles retracted his hand back in surprise.

"He's pretty shy," Zlaze explained.

Ziles let out a soft chuckle in response, "Well, you have always had a thing with children." He replied, a small smirk crossing his face as he did. "Well, when you get a second, head back over."

Ziles left the two of them alone as he returned to his post, double checking the readings that he had, he had figured out why none of this made sense, which could confirm a suspicion that he had had since the beginning, the events didn't look natural. The mass breakdown was being caused or triggered by somebody or something. He didn't even want to think about how much power it was taking to even pull one dimension out of alignment, much less thousands of them.

He found himself hyperventilating as he thought of it, it surely wasn't possible, he had to be wrong somewhere, right? But as he checked back over his math in a panic, it kept coming up as correct. His breathing continued to quicken and he had to sit down for a moment, he couldn't stop his hands shaking, until eventually it was too much for him to comprehend and he passed out.

**-X-**

"So, Silver, do you know what happened here?" Zlaze asked.

"Well, not exactly, I know this wasn't like this a few days ago…"

"Did you see any of this before?"

"There was a small patch of the black dirt this is all made of that appeared a day or two ago, I didn't think it was anything special."

"Did you tell anybody?"

"No…" The hedgehog nervously replied.

"It's alright, now, why don't you head back to your family. I'm sure they're wondering where you are."

Sliver nodded and vanished in an explosion of cyan light, Zlaze sighed to herself, there wasn't going to be a way of saving this one was there… The time they would need simply didn't exist.

She walked back toward where Ziles was, he was currently sat down, seemingly contemplating something. At least that's what she thought until he slumped down and fell to the side. She ran over to him and removed his helmet and tossed it aside.

"Ziles? Ziles wake up!" She exclaimed, violently shaking him in an attempt regain his consciousness. Just as she was about to activate her warp ring to transport the two of them back to HQ, the fox's eyes fluttered open. Zlaze let out a sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that! Are you alright!?"

After a moment, he responded. "A bit lightheaded, but otherwise, I'll be ok, just didn't get enough air…"

"Let the anxiety take over again?" She asked, having a feeling as to the culprit of Ziles' sudden lapse in consciousness.

A small smile crossed the fox's face, "You know me so well."

Zlaze couldn't help but playfully ruffle his bangs, "You dork! What did I always tell you about worrying yourself to death?"

"Don't worry about things you can't control…" Ziles replied, having memorized the phrase long ago. "Just worry about yourself…"

"That's right! I highly doubt that's what you were doing when you passed out, right?"

"You got me…" Ziles responded slowly rising back to his feet. "But you need to look at this."

Zlaze took a glance through his readings, sure enough, the cause of death on the body that was present was from dimensional destabilization, however, the cause of the destabilization wasn't natural, far from it in fact. While there were some basic attempts to try and conceal it, it seemed to be the job of a amateur. Which puzzled Zlaze.

_"How would a amateur have figured out how to trigger a mass destabilization?_" She thought, Chief Zamy would certainly want to hear about this. She continued with her questioning.

"Do you have any idea where it's from?"

"Nothing, I'd need a lot more to work with, as it stands, there's not much hope for this dimension, I'm sorry…"

"Why are you sorry? You did what you could."

Ziles didn't respond, Zlaze still pressured the fox for a answer.

"Ziles, with a crisis this big, we're going to lose some, as long as we prevent as much damage as we can, that's all that matters."

"I just- forget sometimes what's at stake with each of these, everywhere we go there's other living beings who have no understanding of what's going to happen to them. I want to do more…"

"We all do, but sometimes, everything you have won't be enough, and you can't let that stop you." Zlaze responded.

Ziles gave her a weak smile, and the two were silent for a bit. Zlaze finally broke the comfortable quiet.

"We best start heading back, Chief Zamy will want to hear this." They both activated their warp rings and teleported out, leaving the black desert behind.

**-X-**

Zamy still couldn't believe what she was hearing, Zlaze had confirmed her suspicions, it was artificial in nature, an attack, she had proposed.

"Why haven't we seen this sooner!?" Zamy questioned, "How did this big of an operation slip past us!"

"I'm not sure," Zlaze responded. "We're double checking all the readings, there has to have been some clue or slip up somewhere, there's no such thing as a perfect crime."

"Perfect, as soon as you have any suspicion, I want a team deployed, we need to stop this, now!"

Zlaze saluted and exited the room, Zamy sighed and sat back in her chair, whis was going to be harder than she had hoped…

**Alright guys, hope you enjoyed! Feel free to follow to be updated and leave a review with your thoughts! Remember, there is a poll on my profile about the next story I do. Until next time!**


	5. Cornered

**Hello! It's time for another chapter! Let's get going!**

**No Zone Archives: Drift**

**Cornered**

_"Finally,"_ Zonic thought. _"About time they gave me a assignment!"_

In fact, he had been assigned to a combat position none the less. They had a suspect in mind for the cause, and while there wasn't a whole lot pointing at him. He did have a record of criminal history, and not to mention, had escaped from their grasp twice now. It was time to properly bring him in.

Zonic was placed in command of the strike team, however, there weren't many available officers that could be assigned to a combat role. It left his somewhat mediocre team of three to bring in their target. However, he personally knew Lieutenant Zector and Zespio, so he felt confident in his ability to bring in their target.

The three of them exchanged greetings and began the briefing. "Our target is Scourge of Dimension R-42." Zonic began. "He's been known in the past to cause mass chaos and is ambitious to a fault. While it's unlikely he's the cause of the disturbance, he's escaped our pursuits several times now. As for abilities, he possesses extreme speed, along with great physical strength."

The others nodded and he continued, "However, there are no allies to speak of, even in his home dimension, as his old group of associates overthrew him and allowed Queen Alicia and her advisor Miles to take the throne. As such, we know there's going to be no assistance, it's just him."

"Do you have a specific strategy in mind?" Zespio asked.

"Sadly, no, Scourge has proven unpredictable in the past. It's always difficult to prepare a plan to guarantee his capture, however, he's outnumbered and overpowered here. We also have the element of surprise on our side, along with the knowledge he possesses no ability to exit the dimension on his own. There will be no escape this time…"

The other two officers nodded in response, and they prepared their gear. Stepping onto the warp pad, Zonic felt the familiar sense of adrenaline coursing through his veins, he would never get used to the excitement every assignment prepared the warp and handed each of them a warp ring to return to the No Zone after completion of their mission.

Each prepared their standard issue blaster pistol assigned for all field assignments and set it to stun, they needed him alive after all. He stood straight upright and took a deep breath in, then, they were gone.

**-X-**

Moebius was rather nice this time of year, as nice as a reverse version of the Prime Zone could get. Summer was in full swing, the sun beamed down above. Acting as a catalyst for all types of plants to grow. Amidst a clearing in the forest, a bright blue vortex opened up, creating a shockwave that disrupted the natural serenity of the area. Three armored officers stepped out, weapons at the ready.

"Fan out!" Zonic commanded, "We have readings that say he should be in the area, if you find him, report your location. Do not engage on your own, am I clear?"

Zector and Zespio nodded, and the three parted ways to search for their walked into the trees, keeping his ears open for any noise he could hear that might notify him to Scourge's presence. Currently, however, there was nothing more then the wind in the leaves above and the heavy footsteps on the grass and dirt below.

As he walked, he saw a flash of green on the edge of his vision. He span around weapon at the ready, only to find nothing, he reached down for his beacon to notify the others, but he wanted to be sure first. He kept his weapon at the ready, and kept circling, knowing Scourge, he would try to fight dirty. Sure enough, he heard the gust of wind behind him, but just as he finished turning around, he was met with a punch to the gut, throwing him down to the grass below, his weapon landed a few feet from him. He activated the beacon to alert his fellow officers, now he would just need to stall for time.

"What's the matter Bucket Brain? Scourge taunted, "Too fast for you?"

Zonic growled and swung at the hedgehog, whom just dashed around and socked him on the back of the head, the cushioning on his helmet along with the protective shields on the suit protected him from the attack, but it couldn't absorb the energy and he was knocked forward from the blow.

"Scourge, turn yourself in, and I assure you, this will be less painful."

"For you!" He scoffed. "Maybe you should try improving your security, you never learn do you?"

_"Don't let him mess with you,"_ The officer told himself. _"You just need to buy time."_

Suddenly, Zonic had an idea. "So, how's the rest of the Suppression Squad?"

The question seemed to enrage the hedgehog, who charged Zonic with no forethought. Zonic anticipated this and rolled to the side, retrieving his blaster and firing at where Scourge had been, it missed only by inches as the hedgehog dashed by.

Scourge smirked, "Almost had me there, just face it, you're never going to pin me down!"

Zonic had no response, just as he was going to continue laying down fire, two blaster shots flew out of the trees on either side and struck Scourge square in the chest. He fell to the dirt, unconscious.

Zonic looked to his sides to find that Zector an Zespio had arrived, providing him with the element of surprise that they needed to take him down. The green hedgehog had been so confident in his abilities to take down one, that he was completely caught off guard when the other two had arrived.

"Thanks," Zonic began.

He looked over at the now limp form in front of him and pulled him up, slinging the hedgehog over his shoulder. Zector helped support the weight as Zespioactivated his warp ring to open an exit portal. Zantoine was out of his seat and called the prison staff to assist in taking the unconscious hedgehog to his cell once again.

**-X-**

Scourge woke up several hours later, he still felt a bit woozy as the effects of the stun blast wore off. The first thing he noticed was he was in a cage.

_"What a loser! He needed help to take me down!"_ He thought, while he was stillangry at allowing himself to get caught, he figured that he could just figure out a way to break himself out again, maybe take a few warp rings with him. While investigating his cell for any openings, the doorway opened and Zonic appeared.

"Enjoy your nap?" He asked. Scourge wanted nothing more then to tear him apart, but as he suspected, an inhibitor collar had already been placed around his neck. It prevented use of his super speed, along with his stronger than average strength.

"Look," The officer continued. "We're going to find out what you know about this interdimensional crisis, whether you like it or not. I'm giving you an opportunity to confess."

"Does it look like I would know anything about a interdimensional crisis!? Isn't that your guy's problem!?"

"Suit yourself, if you'd rather not answer, we're going to have to figure it out for ourselves." The officer entered, and placed restraints around the convict's wrists and escorted him out of his cage. He took him down to the investigative department, where Warden Zobotnik took over, several hours passed and eventually, Scourge was released back to Zonic, whom was notified that Scourge seemed not to know anything.

He escorted the emerald hedgehog to the forensic lab, where a sample of his blood was taken to be examined, something that Ziles seemed all too happy to perform. Ziles eventually returned with some results.

"There's nothing unusual," He began. "Everything seems relatively stable, the only signs of dimensional interference is the destabilization that's being experience everywhere. We've got nothing to pin him on."

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know why you want to pin it on him. There's no evidence that we can use to link him to this."

"Scourge has a history of causing chaos, if there's anybody that I think would be responsible for causing this large of a destabilization, it'd be him. Is there nothing of note, hints of an accomplice?"

"Well… There was something…" Ziles handed over a small data tablet he was holding. "There's a chance a interdimensional portal opened near him, it's not very clean so it left some evidence behind. It could have been a random discharge from ours, but I doubt it…"

"Did you tell Zally? Maybe she could have a use for it when he's put on trial?"

"I did, and she accepted it, but it won't be too helpful, we'd need more concrete evidence, simply having the data is different then knowing where it came from. She'll try and present it if she gets the chance, but it'll probably get shot down by Zhadow. He'll come to the same conclusion I did, mostly because he's aware of this data as well, it's public for the trial."

"Is there anyway we could prove that it wasn't us?"

"I guess if you could find solid evidence that there was another gateway that opened near him, but that doesn't confirm that he knows that one did open. So you'd need evidence to that."

"That's a lot, any potential leads?"

"We're really stepping out of my territory here, I feel like this is more for the investigative teams. You know how possessive Zobotnik gets about his investigations. If he finds out that I'm taking over one of his jobs he's going to be after me."

"Well can you at least give permission for my leave, I'll check it out myself."

"You know I hate doing this… I always feel like we're breaking the system here."

Ziles only outranked Zonic by pure technicality, they were both elite officers, but Ziles had a second position as head of forensics, as such he outranked all elite officers solely because of this edge case.

"I'll bring you cookies."

"Hmmmm."

"And I'll be your test subject for a week!"

The fox's ears perked up at the second statement, he reluctantly shook on it. "I'm holding you to that you know."

Zonic nodded and proceeded to the warp platform, Zantoine was already prepared, having seemingly already received Ziles command to allow him to leave.

Within moments Zonic was back on Moebius, several teams of other No Zone denizens were already busy checking the surrounding area that Scourge had been captured in, luckily nobody questioned what he was doing here. Having had some experience with Moebius, he knew Scourge was probably based not far from his current location. After searching for about half an hour, he located the small hut. Kicking down the door, he didn't immediately find anything out of place. He checked though some of the personal belongings found around site, nothing that immediately stood out.

He moved to the basement and found something, a bit odd. Several of what he knew the Moebians referred to as checkpoint posts were scattered around, their purpose here was unknown, but he managed to find, what appeared to be a rudimentary control console. Scourge was clearly not the best with technology and as such, it appeared like something that would barely function.

Powering it on, a soft humming noise could be heard, all the checkpoint posts activated. Then, strangely, their energies started ricocheting off one another, causing a small vortex to appear in the center of the room.

It slowly grew in size over time, and while he didn't know where it lead, it was all the info he needed. As he powered it off, he was suddenly made aware of footsteps pounding down the stairs.

"Freeze! A voice yelled, put your hands on your head!"

Unable to make out any more than the figure's silhouette, he did as instructed, it didn't matter, he already had what he needed.

**Alright guys, that's all for now! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know your thoughts in the comments! Until next time!**


	6. Updates Slowed (Authors Note)

Hey guys, I've got some news concerning this story, and before you ask, no it isn't canceled.

I'm trying to cut down on my workload and being pressured to keep 2-3 stories updated is a bit much. So, until another one of the other in progress stories is completed, this one will have its posts slowed drastically.

It may still receive a chapter here or there, but don't count on them being consistent.

I hope you can all understand, and I'm sorry for having to do this to the people who enjoyed the story thus far. I hope I can make it up to you guys once I finally get the ball rolling on this story again.


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